Chapter 15. The enslaved in late-Enlightenment stories for children

Abstract

On the long road towards the abolition of the slave trade and enslavement, European and American books for children, published in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, sought to engage their intended young readers in the debate. In this chapter I counterpoint fictional characterizations of the enslaved with those in autobiographical accounts and in newspaper fugitive slave advertisements. The children’s books of the time depicted the enslaved as objects of pity and in need of rescuing. That positioned them as ideal subjects for authors attempting to cultivate empathy and sensibility in their young readers. Actual enslaved people told a different story, recording both the brutality and savagery of enslavers and their own sustained resistance to enslavement.